Cradle to Gate
Identity ID
04dc367f-de2f-4914-8d71-8a6ef8b9dc67
Materials
Associated ID
20d8c7f2-e3d8-43b7-b98c-9be7ba36bfe9
Included activities starts
Included activities ends
Description
Zinc sulfide is an important semiconductor material, widely used in fields such as the manufacture of fluorescent materials, optical coatings, white pigments for plastics and coatings, and additives for ceramic and glass production; Zinc sulfide is modelled as a pure substance; when modelling this substance the user needs to add a solvent of their choice in the model; the dataset contains the main raw and auxiliary materials, energy, waste and atmospheric emissions of the production process, and infrastructure such as the manufacture of production equipment and the construction of plant buildings is not included within the dataset boundary; the data inventory is formed by merging data from multiple sources; the production activities of this product include reaction, filter pressing, washing and slurrying.
Activity Description
The production processes of this product include reaction, filter pressing, cleaning, slurrying, and other steps.
Process Description
The chemical formula of zinc sulfide is ZnS, CAS number 1314-98-3. Its common form is white or slightly yellow powder, and the pure product is colorless and transparent crystals. It is insoluble in water and dilute acid, but soluble in concentrated hydrochloric acid and nitric acid. It will melt at high temperatures (about 1180°C), and will undergo an oxidation reaction to generate zinc sulfate when encountering strong oxidants (such as nitric acid). Zinc sulfide is an important semiconductor material. It is mainly used in the industry for the manufacture of fluorescent materials (such as the preparation of phosphors, used in LEDs and picture tubes), optical coatings (as coating for infrared optical components), and can also be used as a white pigment (replacing lithopone) in the coating, plastic, and rubber industries. It is also used as an additive in the production of ceramics and glass to improve product gloss and mechanical strength.
Time period
2023
2026
Geography
China
Macroeconomic value
Business-as-Usual
Data validation
Yes
Technology
Current Technology
Technology comment
Wet precipitation method is the mainstream technology for the preparation of zinc sulfide. High-purity powder is produced through the precipitation reaction of zinc salt and sulfide. The process is tailored to the needs of fine chemical production and accounts for more than 80% of the domestic zinc sulfide market. This dataset represents this mainstream technology: it uses the classic wet metathesis process, the core of which is to generate soluble zinc salts and directly react them with soluble sulfides in aqueous solution to form insoluble zinc sulfide precipitates, followed by multiple steps of press filtration, cleaning, and slurrying to obtain the finished zinc sulfide product. The main chemical reaction equation involved is: ZnSO4 + Na2S = ZnS↓+ Na2SO4.